Vehicle Maintenance costs

Welcome to the party pal! There's more costs to car ownership than just your monthly payment. Many people overlook this other large expense of car ownership, and instead focus on just the monthly payments of their car loan. But you also have other expensive obligations to your vehicle, which you now become slave to. Assume your insurance is $2400 annually, your monthly obligation adds $200 on top of your car loan. You better be ready for that. You can expect your monthly gas bill to be about $60. You should assume your tires will need replacing once a year at $160 per tire or $640 annually, and maybe more for a wheel alignment. Then there's the twice a year oil changes, and you must allow for one medium sized repair every year. Add all those up, calculate your average monthly expense, and add it to your car loan and see if you can afford it. I bet you won't be able to afford it. If you cannot work all those costs into your budget, then you need to buy a cheaper car to allow for your maintenance costs. This nails a lot of people who don't leave room in their budget for ALL ownership costs. Don't bite off more than you can chew, don't try to maximize your monthly payment without leaving room for maintenance items, car insurance, and unexpected repairs.